Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap: Week 4

Michigan rolls over Bowling Green; NC State improves to 4-0 with a win over Georgia Tech.

Michigan 65, Bowling Green 21. Yep, that's 65 points. Michigan had 721 yards of offense. Another big day for Denard Robinson? Well, yes and no; he broke the game open early with some big runs and a couple of touchdowns, but he left in the first quarter with a bruised knee. After Devin Gardner had some moderately successful drives, Tate Forcier finally made his season debut in the second quarter and looked razor sharp. He completed all twelve of his passes on the game and led Michigan on five straight touchdown drives before leaving the game with a gimpy leg. Both Robinson and Forcier are expected to be fine for next week's game against Indiana.

So yes, Robinson had 129 yards rushing on just five carries, and scored 14 points in about four minutes of possession time, but I think the story here is Forcier: he played with great tempo and made correct reads all game long. Robinson may be the electric game-breaker, but I think the offense runs just fine under Forcier too.

On defense, there were a few busts in the first half, letting Bowling Green hang around, but I think one long touchdown pass was the partly result of a holding penalty that wasn't called. Michigan was in a zone blitz; Bowling Green called a jailbreak screen, which was executed well. But in this photo, we see the Bowling Green receiver grabbing James Rogers' arm, preventing him from being able to contain the play or make the tackle.

Bowling Green: Holding

So yes, Bowling Green made a great playcall, and Cam Gordon (#4 in the photo) utterly failed to beat his downfield block... but this is a penalty that should have been called.

But that's just nitpicking. For the most part, the defense had a decent day. Bowling Green only had 32 yards rushing; they had 251 yards passing, but 71 came from that one touchdown play. Michigan also came up with two interceptions (Jonas Mouton is getting better and better and making his zone drops).

Michigan starts Big Ten play against Indiana next week. Indiana has three wins against cupcake opponents.

Grades: Offense A, Defense B-. Still need to work on stopping big plays, and on getting a better pass rush without blitzing.

NC State 45, Georgia Tech 28. Russell Wilson had another huge day, racking up 368 yards passing and four touchdowns (one rushing, three passing). He did throw one bad interception, but was otherwise sharp most of the day. Dean Haynes had a decent day rushing the ball, but I think State would still like to see more consistency in its rushing attack.

The game wasn't quite as close as the final score reflected. Except for a couple of big plays, including a touchdown that came off the interception, NCSU dominated the game on both sides of the ball. The season is still looking good for NCSU. They're now 4-0 (the only remaining undefeated team in the ACC), they've proven they can win against quality competition, and they're playing with confidence.

Virginia Tech visits next. Despite Tech's loss to 1-AA James Madison earlier this season, they're sure to put up quite a fight against NCSU.

Other Notable Games

UCLA pulled off the upset of the day, beating #7 Texas 34-20. Texas looked woefully unprepared for this game. Meanwhile, what's up with UCLA? They lose in embarrassing fashion to Kansas State and Stanford, but bounce back with two big wins in a row.

#1 Alabama came from behind to beat #10 Arkansas 24-20. Former Michigan quarterback Ryan Mallett threw three costly interceptions for Arkansas, dashing Arkansas' national championship aspirations and possibly his own Heisman Trophy chances.

#2 Ohio State beat Eastern Michigan 73-20, #11 Wisconsin beat Austin Peay 70-3, and #18 Iowa beat Ball State 45-0. So if you look at these games along with Michigan's win, that's an average score of 64-11 for the four top Big Ten teams this week. Remember when the Big Ten was known for staid, low-scoring offenses?

#23 Penn State struggled mightily against Temple, finally pulling out a late touchdown and winning 22-13. Penn State has a lot to worry about: they've looked downright lousy for much of the season. After coming into the season ranked #14 in the USA Today poll, there's a distinct possibility that they could sputter to a 6-6 record. Northwestern, Indiana, and Michigan were probably chalked up in their win column in pre-season predictions. Now? The last five games of their season are looking like a big challenge.

#3 Boise State hung on to win in an ugly game against #24 Oregon State. Oregon State had high hopes coming into this season, but it looks like their #24 ranking was perhaps undeserved.

#6 Nebraska struggled to a 17-3 win against lowly, winless South Dakota State.

#17 Auburn knocked off #12 South Carolina 35-27 in a wild game. South Carolina had been looking like a real contender for the SEC; now Auburn might be Alabama's biggest challenger. Auburn and Alabama don't play until the end of the regular season on November 26... that's already shaping up to be a huge game.

#16 Stanford stomped Notre Dame 37-14. Oh, how the Notre Dame fans are grumbling. Notre Dame is now 1-3, but they've played four high-quality opponents along the way; none of the top teams in the country can say the same. Notre Dame gets Boston College and Pitt in the next two weeks; if they can pull out wins in those games, and wins against Western Michigan, Tulsa, Army, and Navy, then they'll at least gut out a 7-5 season if even they lose to Utah and USC. But 4-8 is also a possibility if team morale goes down the gutter, so Brian Kelly is going to have to work to keep his team motivated.

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